Welcome to Markets Desk, your midday read on what's moving markets and why.
Tensions in the Middle East are flaring again, and traders are watching the Strait of Hormuz closely. The U.S. military shot down Iranian ballistic missiles and drones near the strait Friday, then struck Iranian coastal radar sites in response. President Trump called the situation quote going quite well, but the exchange signals the ceasefire with Tehran remains deeply fragile, and any escalation there carries real consequences for global oil flows.
Shifting to equities, software-as-a-service names are catching a bid today as AI optimism continues to drive institutional money back into the sector. Microsoft is leading the conversation, with analysts pointing to sustained growth across both its software licensing and Azure cloud businesses. The market is essentially repricing the revenue runway that enterprise AI adoption creates for the major platform players.
And in commodities, silver is quietly outshining gold miners. The iShares Silver Trust has delivered meaningfully stronger returns than the Sprott Gold Miners ETF over the trailing twelve months, a divergence that reflects both industrial demand for silver in solar and electronics manufacturing and some company-specific headwinds weighing on the miners themselves.
That's the tape. Markets Desk, signing off the floor.
